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What is data mining? What is link analysis? They are processes whereby computer algorithms sort through huge amounts of electronic data. The systems can be programmed to look for and make links among a variety of different characteristics. For example, if investigators...
[Note: these comments were written in response to this document, produced by the Department of Justice.] The ACLU of Massachusetts appreciates this opportunity to review the draft “Guidance” produced as a result of roundtable discussions held across the United States over this...
The “Building Communities of Trust” initiative is the term used by federal agencies to sell the new surveillance network to the public as the new face of “community policing.” As described in the “Guidance for Building Communities of Trust” compiled by the...
What kinds of groups get classified as “domestic threat organizations”? A secret FBI report obtained by ABC News in 2005 shows 22 white supremacist organizations and other right-wing extremist hate groups are the targets of 338 active FBI field investigations. However, the...
The Audit by the the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General on its information sharing system and SARs analysis in fusion centers found the following systemic problems: • Sharing still relied on the strength of personnel relationships in various agencies. • There...
The new “fusion centers,” the spy centers of the emerging surveillance network, have been created without any public process. Their operations remain opaque for two critical reasons. First, the organizational structures of surveillance centers entangle federal, state and local law enforcement, creating...
What happens to the “tips and leads” about terrorism that come to the attention of law enforcement from a variety of sources including anonymous ones – from the public, private sector, police officers and other government agencies? How is the National Information...
Looks like police in Chicago have a tricked out surveillance truck equipped with cell site simulators, a.k.a. Stingrays, that force nearby phones to send data to cops instead of to phone company cell towers. Did those cops get a warrant for that?
